MANILA, Philippines — Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc. (SPAVI) sees more opportunities for international expansion as the company continues to ramp up its store openings across its diversified brand portfolio.
In a briefing yesterday, SPAVI president and chief executive officer Vicente Gregorio said opportunities abound for the group to expand its brands abroad.
“We remain very optimistic, as you can tell, with our international expansion and in fact, we have invested in developing an organization dedicated for the international expansion of our brands and this international group will continue to grow because the opportunities abound,” he said.
Gregorio said markets are available because the brands in SPAVI’s portfolio have started to show very attractive growth potential.
He said the group currently has presence in 14 countries.
“We have opened several stores in China. We have opened new markets like Malaysia and the first few stores in this area have done very well. This gives us further motivation and encouragement. And we continue to grow in the existing markets,” Gregorio said.
According to Gregorio, Potato Corner, which the group acquired in 2021, has emerged as a globally accepted product, which needs little introduction to the foreign market.
“So the opportunities for our international expansion continues to grow and eventually we will be looking at also our other brands to see if we have potential. At the moment, two casual dining brands are busy expanding within Philippine shores. But we do have a couple of stores for Shakey’s already outside the Philippines,” he said.
SPAVI ended the first quarter with a total of 2,232 stores and outlets in its global network.
Approximately 13 percent of its network were international stores.
As of end-March, the company had 268 outlets, while Potato Corner had 1,874 stores and Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken and Sauce Bar had 76 outlets. R&B Milk Tea and Project Pie had a total of 14 units.
For this year, SPAVI will be expanding its network footprint by 400 stores.
Gregorio said the bulk or about 70 percent of the group’s store expansion for 2024 would be comprised of Potato Corner.
Shakey’s will open at least 20 stores this year.
“A lot of it will be in new areas outside of Metro Manila so in the provincial areas, Visayas, Mindanao where we’re still seeing a lot of white spaces. We’re very encouraged whenever we open in a new area, in the virgin territory, the reception has been very good. So that basically gives us confidence about the strength of the brand,” SPAVI chairman Christopher Po said.
“We’re also seeing a lot of white spaces for Potato Corner, both domestically and internationally,” he said.
In terms of financial growth, SPAVI is on track to delivering a double-digit growth this year.
The company has set a goal of increasing both its topline and bottomline in the mid-teens for 2024.
“We’ve always been very cautious and we always want to stay vigilant. The first half continues to present its own challenges and opportunities. But the management team is confident that we are still on track and the guidance we gave will be achieved,” Gregorio said.